Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

The hon. Gentleman knows that the Government inherited a justice system in crisis, with a record and rising caseload. He also knows that the last Government closed courts right across the country. We are legislating for structural reform. We are investing £2.78 billion to bring down the backlog. We will continue to look closely at the needs in Kendal, but he recognises that it will take some time to address what we inherited.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon and Consett) (Lab)]

T9. The latest Women’s Aid annual audit highlights that nearly 80% of domestic abuse survivors now face devastating tech-facilitated abuse and online stalking. How will the Ministry of Justice collaborate across Government to ensure that our courts and prosecutors are fully equipped to tackle digital violence?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Catherine Atkinson)]

I thank my hon. Friend for her consistent efforts to raise the issue of online harms. Whether it is physical, verbal or online, abuse is abuse, and this Government are determined to tackle violence against women and girls online as well as off. We are making it illegal to take or make intimate images without consent, including deepfakes. Our new deletion orders will ensure that courts can require offenders convicted of intimate image offences to delete images of their victims. The VAWG strategy sets out our plan across Government to tackle digitally facilitated violence.